Re: Learning languages

From: "J Y S Czhang" <czhang23@...>

>     I find useful the "Multi-Track Attack" method of language learning
that
> Barry Farber, founder of the Language Club and a syndicated radio talk
show
> host, came up with in his book _How to Learn Any Language: Quickly,
Easily,
> Inexpensively, Enjoyably and On Your Own_ (my used battered paperback
edition: New
> York: Citadel Press/Carol Publishing Group, 1995, copyrighted 1991, ISBN
> 0-8065-1271-7, list price U$ 9.95)
I know who you're talking about. His radio show was on a local station in
Lufkin, TX when I lived there. Though I don't agree with a lot of his
right-wing politics (at least he's not abrasive like Limbaugh or O'Reilly),
he's definitely SMRT and fun to listen to.

>     Farber, who claimed some level of fluency in 25 languages circa 1991,
> advocates using all at once cassette tapes, flash cards, dictionaries,
grammar
> books, etc.; turning idle time - i.e. waiting at doctors' offices,
standing in
> bureacratic lines, riding elevators even - into
> 'mini-lessons"; plunging in at a young child's level and working one's way
> towards conversation, reading publications, and watching movies in one's
target
> language, etc. And one track Farber constantly returns to is chattin' up
> native speakers, be-friending 'em... friendships can be a "major human
asset" in a
> linguavore's toolbox... a conlanger's bag of tricks (...a
linguamangalanger's
> sleeveful of whack-happiness).
So he came up with the whole "multi-track/learn-as-a-child" idea before I
did... oh well, he does speak a lot more languages than I did (is he still
alive?). And the saying "you have to think in X to speak X" does hold true.

I've used flash cards to learn the Armenian alphabet, both capitals and
lowercase; those I made myself. Reminds me, I need to make some for the
Ethiopic syllabry before I leave for Washington, DC this Monday. I listen to
internet radio a lot (like RFE/RL since they have some of my favorite
languages, including the Caucasian ones), though I don't know a lot of what
they're saying. I also listen to as much "world music" as I can, especially
Spanish/Latin, which of course is very common here in the Lone Star State.

The "chattin' up" thing... thing is, I have this "language anxiety" when
trying to speak in another language, because I never feel sure I know what
I'm doing. So I end up speaking English hoping the other person can
understand (like a typical American), or make a fool of myself in whatever
language (like a typical American).

And when it comes to conlangs, I tend to keep things secret unless I'm sure
how things will be (even on this list or with close friends/family); took me
a while just to spit out phonology, and I'm not even NEAR vocabulary or
grammar yet! It's like peeing in public.

>     Intriguin'ly Farber says: "... let me ... point out that Indonesian
> [Bahasa Indonesia] is the easiest language in the world - no hedging, no
'almost,'
> no 'among the easiest.' In my experience, Indonesian is the easiest. The
> grammar is minimal, regular, and simple. Once I began to learn it,
Indonesian
> didn't seem 'jungle' anymore...."
I feel that way about Turkish, but I haven't done much study of Indonesian.
I honestly think Mandarin would be one of the easiest were it not for the
thousands of characters required to write it (in other words, if I could
read/write it all just in Pinyin or Bopomofo -- but that would really wreck
the aesthetic nature of it all).

>     ROTFLMAO. Farber has not tried reading or hearing classic/academic
> Indonesian fiction and poetry evidently... (To the list newbies: I am
ethnic'ly
> Chinese-Indonesian - with an exotic dash of Russian Jewish - tho' I
self-identify
> as a BBC [BritishBorn Chinaman] and WOG [Wiley Oriental Gentlerogue])
If my wife and I ever have kids, they'll be Anglo-Irish, French, German,
Arab, Turkish, Iranian and who knows what else. They'll think of themselves
as just "American mutts" like their parents most likely.

>     Ok, again back to the subject... ol' papa Ezra Pound suggested a
> _reading_ ability of at least two (2) other languages - besides one's
mother tongue or
> variations & mutations thereof - and he regarded translation as a very
useful
> adjunct activity for any writer. Of course, Pound was partial to
translating
> poetry (or attempting to do so).
I know first hand that studying other languages -- even just learning ABOUT
other languages -- not only helped me speak English better, but made me
smarter overall. Good advice.